Topic for TMDSAS Non-Traditional Essay?

[j_diggity]

Hello, I'm a nontraditional student, curious what schools like to see when I indicate myself as being "non-traditional". There is an essay with a prompt "Describe the factors that have defined you as a non-traditional candidate and how they impact your application. (1000 char)".

I talk a bit about my non-traditional background in my Personal Characteristics essay, and my activities section also has information about this.

I have a few ideas for how to approach this essay, but could use some advice deciding:

• As a "what have I been doing since college" prompt, just detailing my path. "I worked at XYZ for 2 years, then moved to ABC and got promoted, then realized I wanted to be a doctor so I became an EMT to validate my interest"
• Talk about how being non-trad affects my application negatively, but try to draw strengths from it.
  • I moved around a lot for work as a software engineer, so I don't have a ton of longitudinal (multi-year) experiences. However, I was always involved, so I have several types of activities in different cities and parts of the country, each lasting about a year, which enriches my app.
  • I want to work with the underserved, but don't have much underserved volunteering since I've had to support myself financially. Despite this, I have still managed to do 300-500 hours of nonclinical community service across 3 separate activities during my postbac, so there's still evidence for a commitment to these populations.

Curious if anyone has ideas for how I should approach this! Thank you.

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[Mr.Smile12]

My own opinion on this is that it focuses on adversity or differences in your training from a traditional elementary-secondary-university-med school education timeline. I don't know whether focusing on how being non-trad has been a barrier is necessarily the only way... I'm not a fan of the prompt asking how being a non-trad impacts your application.

I would think that having worked as a software engineer before deciding to go for a medical career defines you as a candidate. You can list the strengths of having been in the field and what you think you bring as a strength to patient care. You became an EMT to validate it. etc.